Aug 05 2009
Looking Farther (43) – Not Believing What I See
I don’t believe everything I see. Does that make me distrustful of my very own senses? To some degree, in some circumstances, yes.
When I see a magician push a knife through a sexy assistant, do I believe he has truly impaled him? No, I don’t believe what I have seen.
If I see an unidentified flying object, do I believe I have seen something alien or supernatural? No, I don’t believe.
The above NASA photo is of the sunrise. Did two or three suns actually rise that day? Well, no, it’s an optical illusion caught by a camera. So I wouldn’t recommend believing what you might think you see.
The human brain and its sensory organs is a limited and perhaps even flawed reality-appraisal system. But that doesn’t mean we give up, or insist that there are other ways of knowing. We must instead look for tools and information outside ourselves.
Decades ago the bumper sticker “Question Authority” became popular. I would argue that the greatest authority in our own lives is . . . ourselves. And we should question that authority.
